Menu

Share

Library of Congress

ENGAGING MUSEUM-GOERS

by bringing interactive exhibitions to artifacts behind glass

QUALITY IN EXHIBITION DESIGN

I’m quite passionate about making educational experiences engaging. I don’t mind admitting I’m a bit of a history nerd. And so I love when I find a museum’s interactive exhibits done with great quality. Second Story Interactive Studios in Portland does this. So when I got the chance to work with them, I jumped on board for a few different projects.

This specific project was for the Library of Congress in Washington, DC and lasted for over six months.

Within this project there were three sub-projects. Either scroll down below or jump to a specific sub-project.

Project:
Library of Congress Exhibitions

Place:
Washington, DC

Agency: Second Story Interactive

Role: Visual, UI & Motion Design

The Great Hall

Craft a tool to see the architecture

The Great Hall is the entryway of the Thomas Jefferson Building, which houses the Library of Congress. Much of it’s great architectural detail is lost by being at a great distance. Through an interactive kiosk, visitors can navigate high-resolution images to see the small details.

I worked as an interface designer the interactive kiosk. There we encountered problems with how to display the large amount of high resolution photographs. From there, I offered to stitch the images together, which helped a great deal to the experience.

Sub-Project:
The Great Hall

Role: UI Designer / Photo Retouching

Thomas Jefferson’s Library

DON’T SHOW THE COVER, LET THEM FLIP THE PAGES.

Many museums hide their artifacts behind thick walls of glass. And so some rightfully ask “why is this so significant?” We faced this challenge directly with the books of Thomas Jefferson. Viewers can now look inside the books behind the glass, and flip their pages.

With this project, I worked with the lead designer to complete the “attract screen” animations of the interactive kiosks. It was a 15-second loop, where I created animations revealing Jefferson’s notes, and flipping pages of his books.

Project:
Thomas Jefferson’s Library

Role: Motion Designer

In 1814, the Library of Congress was destroyed by fire when the British set fire to many government buildings during the War of 1812. The following year, former president Thomas Jefferson offered his collection of 2000 books to Congress to rebuild the library.

Early Americas
Overture

CREATE A GRAND ENTRYWAY

We had an archive of objects and photographs in the exhibit, but how would we make them an entryway? We had two very big screens, and so I was tasked to present the images in a natural, animated way.